Get started: Senate OKs tax hike on wealthy, small business audits increasingly turning up nothing

Our daily blend of the latest news, trends and tips for the small business community.

What’s going ‘on’:

Senate approves raising taxes on wealthy: By a narrow margin, the Senate has passed a plan to extend tax cuts for the middle class next year but allow them to expire for high-income earners. The measure has no chance in the Republican-controlled House, but Democrats say the move strengthens their election-year argument that their rivals are holding tax cuts for the middle-class hostage in favor of breaks for millionaires.

Smallest businesses recovering: The number of businesses with fewer than 10 employees continued dropping following the recession, but at a much slower rate of erosion, according to analysis published by American City Business Journals. From 2009 to 2010, the number of such microbusinesses fell 0.2 percent, compared to a 1.6 percent decline the previous year.

Small business audits turning up nothing:The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is criticizing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for potentially “spending a significant amount of resources on unproductive audits” of small businesses, which often find that the companies do not owe additional taxes.

Keep an eye ‘on’:

Federal Reserve rumors growing louder:The Federal Reserve is moving closer to taking new action to stimulate the recovery, according to several media reports, but not likely until September. In the meantime, here’s a closer look at what the central bank might do to jumpstart the economy.

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Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.